Harriet Green, chairman and CEO, IBM Asia Pacific, points out incumbent companies are in a position to turn into disruptors and build smarter businesses with the use of data.

Chris Hadfield, astronaut and first Canadian commander of the International Space Station: ‘The page of technology is accelerating things...We need to to recognise the impossible happens we apply the technology, and our own ability to create and harness and change the world.’

Chris Hadfield sings David Bowie's Space Oddity #ThinkNZ

Isuru Fernando, analytics and business intelligence leader for IBM New Zealand: “We are on a mission to make AI easy for everyone to use...
AI is going to impact all of our lives, change the way we work and the way we interact with each other. Exploring that relationship between humans and machines is a very interesting field."

Dr Elinor Swery, solutions architect at Soul Machines, on deploying digital humans in the workplace: “It is a complete process, like employing a new person in your company...we train them the same way we train people who represent our brands." She says IBM Watson provides the expertise in the natural language process used by the digital humans, combining the power of emotional intelligence and AI.

At the Innovation Hub of the 2018 Think NZ in Auckland

Matt Hearley of ANZ Bank, with Mike Smith of IBM NZ, talks about how the bank worked with IBM and Suncorp in using blockchain to creating a ‘single source of truth’ for brokers and insurance companies, making the reconciliation process more efficient while also removing the need for paper documentation and manual intervention.

John Smith, IBM fellow, AI technology for IBM Research, says advances that will help solve global concerns include lattice cryptography to fight cybercrime and small autonomous AI-powered robot microscopes to continually monitor the condition of oceans.

Jim Khamis, ANZ strategy and offerings executive at IBM and Isuru Fernando, analytics and business intelligence leader for IBM New Zealand, discuss how technology can provide personalised experiences for sports fans. An example is the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The stadium app is a one-stop shop for fans to access a range of services, like ordering food and beverages, directions for public transport and parking space, direcring them to seats, and up to date news on the team.

Using IBM solutions, the F1 team can design and refine race winning components faster, and drive smarter real-time decision.

Rupert Colchester, head of blockchain, IBM ANZ notes 'no blockchain, no gain'. He says the past year saw blockchain network pilots across industries, demonstrating that the value of blockchain can be realised only when it spans ecosystems. However, he points out, connecting multiple entities across multiple processes is both a business challenge and a test of technology implementation.

One third of epilepsy patients do not respond to available treatments today, and seizures can strike without warning. Stefan Harrer of IBM Research says AI is being used to analyse patterns to help predict seizures. Patients can be alerted through mobile or wearable devices.

Chris Hockings, IBM executive security specialist, at the cybersecurity booth at the 2018 Think NZ booth in Auckland: Collaborative approach on how best to respond to a breach.

The TJbot - a do-it-yourself template to learn, experiment with and explore AI using IBM Watson services - at the Think NZ 2018 in Auckland

Inventor and IBM fellow Chieko Asakawa, who's been blind since the age of 14, is working on answering questions such as: How can technology help improve our quality of life?

How can we navigate the world without using the sense of vision?

Inventor and IBM fellow Chieko Asakawa: 'AI technologies can help the blind see'

Natalie Gunn, research thinker, IBM Australia and New Zealand, on collection of health data: ‘We need to understand how we use it, measure what matters. When we do this we can have longer and successful lives.”

Rana Novack is the daughter of Syrian immigrants and founder of the Refugees Admissions Network at IBM North America. She talks about her work using on using machine learning and cognitive computing to allow government agencies and humanitarian aid groups to better manage refugee and migration crises: “In the age of technology disruption, we have the time and tools to respond to the refugee crisis as an international community.”

Bettina Baer, GBS managing partner, IBM NZ on the ‘future of work’: ‘Businesses must be vigilant to inevitable shifts in employee demands and adapt. In order to prosper and accelerate our businesses and inspire employees, we must understand these changes, or be disrupted by them.’

Hugh Riminton, journalist and MC @ThinkNZ: ‘If you are not using AI technologies, your competitor is using them’

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